What is watt?

The watt is the SI base unit of power. It is universally used to measure the rate of energy consumption or production in electrical appliances, engines, lighting, and virtually all power-related specifications.

Real-world uses

The watt is the SI unit of power, used to rate electrical appliances (a kettle is about 2,000 W, an LED bulb 8–12 W), solar panels, audio amplifiers, and motors. Electricity generation at power stations and renewable installations is measured in watts and its multiples.

History

Named after Scottish engineer James Watt (1736–1819), the unit was adopted by the Second Congress of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1882. Watt's improvements to the steam engine were foundational to the Industrial Revolution.

Common mistakes

Confusing watts (power) with watt-hours (energy). A 100 W light bulb uses 100 watt-hours of energy per hour. Also, equating wattage with brightness for LED bulbs—lumens measure brightness, watts measure power consumption.

What is microwatt?

A microwatt is a unit of power equal to one millionth of a watt. It is used in ultra-low-power electronics, energy harvesting systems, biosensors, and precision scientific instrumentation.

Real-world uses

Microwatts measure the power of radio frequency (RF) signals received by antennas, ultra-low-power IoT sensors, cardiac pacemaker power consumption, and energy-harvesting devices. Satellite receivers may work with signals in the nanowatt to microwatt range. Wearable health monitors often operate at a few microwatts.

History

Microwatts became a meaningful engineering unit as semiconductor miniaturisation through the 1970s–2000s enabled ultra-low-power circuit design. The proliferation of wireless sensors, implantable medical devices, and battery-free energy harvesting systems in the early 21st century made µW-level power budgeting essential.

Common mistakes

Confusing microwatts (µW) with milliwatts (mW)—a difference of 1,000×. In RF engineering, power is often expressed in dBm (decibels relative to 1 mW), which requires knowing that 0 dBm = 1 mW = 1,000 µW, and negative dBm values correspond to sub-milliwatt levels.

When is this conversion used?

Converting watt to microwatt is useful in the power domain when comparing values across different measurement standards or applying formulas that require a specific unit.

Worked examples

1 watt = 1,000,000 microwatt

1 microwatt = 0.000001 watt

How to convert watt to microwatt

To convert watt to microwatt, multiply the value by 1,000,000.

To convert microwatt back to watt, multiply by 0.000001.

Measurement standards

The watt is the SI derived unit of power, defined as one joule per second (kg·m²/s³). Horsepower remains in widespread informal use, particularly in the automotive industry, but has no single universal definition across regions.

Did you know?

The human body at rest produces about 80 watts of power — roughly enough to keep an incandescent light bulb glowing. During intense exercise, a trained cyclist can sustain over 400 watts, and elite sprinters briefly exceed 2,000 watts.

Quick reference: watt to microwatt

watt	microwatt
0.1	100,000
0.5	500,000
1	1,000,000
2	2,000,000
5	5,000,000
10	10,000,000
25	25,000,000
50	50,000,000
100	100,000,000
250	250,000,000
500	500,000,000
1,000	1.000000e+09

Common values

	watt	microwatt
LED light bulb	10 watt	10,000,000 microwatt
Desktop computer	300 watt	300,000,000 microwatt
Microwave oven	1,000 watt	1.000000e+09 microwatt
Small car engine	75,000 watt	7.500000e+10 microwatt
Wind turbine (large)	3,000,000 watt	3.000000e+12 microwatt

Available Power units

More watt conversions

Assumption: horsepower values use mechanical horsepower.